Politics

ZAGREB, Aug 31, 2020 - Central European leaders gathered at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Monday, saying that during the time of the coronavirus Europe needed more solidarity and should abandon double standards for its member states. The Bled Strategic Forum, the most important foreign policy event in Slovenia, hosted a panel discussion on the topic "Europe after Brexit and Covid-19", with the prime ministers of Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, the president of Serbia and the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in attendance. At the start of the discussion, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic spoke about Croatia's…

ZAGREB, August 30, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Sunday, that a blueprint of the plan for the recovery from the corona crisis could be expected in October, and added that the 15.1-percent contraction of Croatia's Gross Domestic Product in Q2 was within expectations. The government is due to have the basic outlines of the recovery plan until 15 October, Plenkovic informed the press after a conference on the occasion of International Day of the Disappeared. "It is our idea that we have the outlines of that plan drawn up until 15 October. After that we will fine-tune…

ZAGREB, August 30, 2020 - A report provided by the State Election Commission (DIP) shows that HRK 78.5 million was spent on organising the country's parliamentary elections on 5 July. However, the incomplete report does not include all the costs incurred during the election process. The previous parliamentary elections in September 2016 cost slightly over HRK 122 million. The structure of the costs seems the same in 2020 as four years ago. For instance, the biggest outlay was for remuneration for polling committee members, HRK 57.9 million on aggregate. Furthermore, material expenses accounted for HRK 20.6 million. A polling committee member is paid 300…

As Novac/Goran Penic/Marina Klepo writes on the 29th of August, 2020, the worst coronavirus-dominated economic forecasts have unfortunately come true: Croatia's GDP sank 15.1 percent in the second quarter, and among EU countries, according to the data released so far, Croatia recorded the fifth worst result, after Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. The Croatian Government has some tricks up its sleeve. Historically, Croatia has never seen such a sharp decline in its economy, and CBS data from 1996 shows that the biggest quarterly decline so far was at the beginning of 2009, at the outbreak of the financial crisis, which…

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of August, 2020, the Minister of Finance, Zdravko Maric, commented on the decline in Croatian GDP in the second quarter, which amounted to 15.1 percent and is the largest decline since statistics have been recorded over the last 25 years. "This is the biggest quarterly drop ever recorded in the Republic of Croatia, which I don't think should come as big surprise considering the coronavirus pandemic. Government spending is the only category that has recorded growth, which is expected given the circumstances and what we've done. The 14 percent drop in personal consumption is the…

ZAGREB, August 28, 2020 - Parliamentary deputies of the We Can! political platform have warned that the final bill on the post-earthquke reconstruction of Zagreb and its environs leaves a lot to be elaborated and that they will continue insisting on the establishment of an institute for reconstruction rather than a fund. MP Tomislav Tomasevic said that his platform would submit a larger number of amendments to improve the bill. He said the platform was satisfied with the social criteria and financial framework of the bill but was not happy with the institutional framework, which, he said, had stayed more or less the…

ZAGREB, August 28, 2020 - The Workers Front (RF) party on Friday called for support to workers of the Sisak Oil Refinery, which is part of the INA oil company, stressing that they were being intimidated. The party said that the workers had turned to RF MP Katarina Peovic, warning that they were being intimidated by the company management after the RF earlier published a list with the names of the workers to be laid off, which it had received from the workers. The party said that the workers had gone public with an authentic document with the names of redundant workers,…

ZAGREB, August 27, 2020 - The government on Thursday sent the bill on the post-quake reconstruction of Zagreb and its environs to parliament for second reading, and the document has incorporated social criteria for co-financing the reconstruction of buildings damaged in the March 22 earthquake. The bill defines the model whereby the government will cover 60% of the costs of structural reconstruction, while local governments and owners will cover 20% each, with the novelty compared to the first reading being that social criteria have been incorporated with an assets and income test. The state and local government will cover the full costs…

ZAGREB, Aug 27, 2020 - Croatian Defence Minister Mario Banozic attended an informal meeting of the European Union member states' defence ministers, which took place in Berlin on Wednesday, within Germany's presidency of the Council of the EU, the Croatian ministry stated in a press release. It was the first physical ministerial meeting at the EU level since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the participants discussed EU’s operational commitments as part of operations and missions of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The importance of cooperation with NATO and the United Nations was highlighted. Minister Banozic spoke…

ZAGREB, Aug 26, 2020 - Adults are responsible for stopping the spreading of hate produced by war which policies have continued to spread and it's a big deal that Croatia's state leadership and Serb community representatives have decided to change that trend, SDSS president Milorad Pupovac said on Tuesday. Speaking on the public broadcaster HRT about a commemoration for Serb civilian war victims held in Grubori earlier in the day, he said "it's a big deal that the Andrej Plenkovic cabinet and President Zoran Milanovic, together with us from the Serb community, have decided to change the trend and stop the spreading of hate…